I have our modem and older (i.e. 4-5 years) D-link router set up in the basement of our house and have been having some trouble lately with my Wifi signal. Did some testing tonight with both my iPad and a laptop and found that if I stand right next to the router, I get pretty good speeds (25 Mbps). Moving 15-20 feet away across the room will halve that, and going upstairs will knock it down to a max of 2 Mbps. I tried a range extender hoping to get a boosted signal upstairs, which did pretty much nothing.

Is there a brand or model of wireless router you've found that seems to be better than others in terms of range or signal strength? Bugs the crap out of me that I'm not able to even watch Netflix upstairs because the signal is so weak.

Also, it seems to be that the signal has gotten significantly worse over the last couple months. Do routers simply...wear out and lose strength?

P.S. The wired connection coming from that router is pretty strong, typically in the 25-30 Mbps range.

Just throwing this out there but have you tried changing the channels Wi-Fi is broadcasting on? May be some interference from another Wi-Fi signal that is broadcasting on the same or channel close to the one you are using.

I have been using a Netgear Rangemax for the last 3 years or so. I was very happy with it, no problems until I subscribed to Backblaze which seemed to cripple my network while doing the initial back up. Went through the settings and couldn't find anything wrong. I am an Apple guy, 3 out of my 4 computers are Macs, and then the iPad and iPhone so I figured I should just get an AirPort Extreme. What a difference, everything is faster, even when using Backblaze, and there are no longer drops in my wireless signal strength that I always had with the Netgear. It's not cheap ($200) but I am very happy with it, easily worth the money to me.

The AirPort won't be for everyone, especially PC users, but my point is you should treat yourself to a new router. The technology is getting better and you might as well get an AC router now.

Just throwing this out there but have you tried changing the channels Wi-Fi is broadcasting on? May be some interference from another Wi-Fi signal that is broadcasting on the same or channel close to the one you are using.

Wifi analyzer works on an android device to show this kind of interference. Not sure of comparable iOS app

I actually use a combination of Powerline + Airports for full wireless coverage. I use the Powerline to get me across half the house (my house is kind of long) and then from there I have my main wireless hub (new Airport Extreme), and I use one more older Extreme to fill in a dead space in the living room. Yeah it's kind of a lot but it was the only way to get decent coverage all the way across the house.

Keep in mind there can be issues with this technology as well, depending on how old your wiring is, and other interference types of behavior. For instance every once in a while my lights just start going on and off at an insane rate. Which could also be a ghost but whatever. Other than that I've been using this type of tech for over 4 years.

It might be overkill for most people. I'm not some sort of networking power user that configs the heck out of routers, but the wireless range that thing puts out is ridiculous. The price has gone down though. I bought it for $199 when it was a new model release. In the time I've had it, I've never had any problems with it and it performs like a champ.